NASA lands in Brisbane for museum's largest ever exhibition

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Expedition 38 flight engineer, participates in the second of the two spacewalks of the mission on December 24, 2013, spread over a four day period, which were designed to allow the crew to change out a faulty water pump on the exterior of the Earth orbiting International Space Station. He was joined on both spacewalks by NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, whose image shows up in Hopkins' helmet visor.Photo courtesy of NASA

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NASA lands in Brisbane for museum's largest ever exhibition

Ashleigh Howarth
Journalist
Ashleigh Howarth is a journalist with more than seven years experience in the industry. She specialises in community news and is the editor of the Ipswich Advertiser. She also contributes stories to Ipswich’s daily newspaper, The Queensland Times. Ashleigh has Bachelor of Journalism from the Queensland University of Technology.

YOU don't need to travel to Cape Canaveral in Florida to learn more about NASA and space.

Save yourself a plane ticket and visit the Queensland Museum in Brisbane and explore their new exhibit, NASA - A Human Adventure, coming this March.

It will be the largest ever exhibition to feature at the Queensland Museum, with more than 250 items on display including original and space flown objects and scaled models and replicas.

From space food to space suits, lunar cameras and moon boots, some of the highlights of the exhibition are several space-flown items, real rocket engines, and several full scale replicas including the front section of NASA's iconic Space Shuttle, Lunar Rover, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space crafts and Soviet robotic lunar rover Lunokhod.

Minister for the Arts and Minister for Science Leeanne Enoch said Queensland Museum beat out Sydney and Melbourne to be the first museum in Australia to host this exhibition about the story of space travel.

"NASA - A Human Adventure will open in March and follows the astonishing story of space travel and the history of rocket science and space flight," Ms Enoch said.

"This exhibition is the very first to be presented in Queensland Museum's newly refurbished exhibition space funded through the Palaszczuk Government, and will be spread across two levels.

"NASA - A Human Adventure is the largest ever exhibition hosted by Queensland Museum, both in terms of size and objects, and coincides with a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

"This exciting exhibition, together with the enhancement of the museum's spaces, further bolsters the museum's position as a leading cultural tourism destination, which last financial year saw 2.1 million visitors.

Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones said the exclusive event will drive visitors to Queensland.

"We are bringing a little bit of the magic of space exploration to Queensland through this exhibition," Ms Jones said.

"Tourism and Events Queensland partnered with Queensland Museum to bring the exhibition here because it drives jobs in tourism."

Queensland Museum Network CEO Dr Jim Thompson said NASA - A Human Adventure, will be an opportunity for visitors to learn more about some of the world's most amazing accomplishments in space technology.

"NASA - A Human Adventure, celebrates our journey into space with objects from both the US and Soviet Union space programs," he said.

"Visitors will be able to marvel at machines that have travelled to space and back, as well as full-sized and scaled replicas."

Showcasing the remarkable achievements of space travel, NASA - A Human Adventure will run at Queensland Museum from March 15, 2019.